Official Brings Lessons In Commerce From Miami

SUFFIELD — The town's economic development director returned from a trip to Miami Wednesday laden with information on how that city's airport handles flowers.

Such knowledge could benefit the flower distribution center planned near Bradley International Airport.

``The volume that they handle is so huge,'' Oley Carpp said of Miami International Airport. ``We're talking billions of stems.''

``If Bradley did 25 percent of what Miami is doing, it would be incredible.''

During his two-day trip, Carpp said he shadowed an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and learned how discoloration of a leaf or petal could hint at the presence of a foreign insect or disease. He also attended GrowTech '96, a flower-marketing conference, and had an opportunity to meet industry officials.

Carpp and First Selectman Roland Dowd have visited two other airports in the past two months to study how the facilities sort and inspect imported flowers. In July, the two visited John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and last month they visited Schipole Airport in the Netherlands.

``What we're doing now is educating ourselves,'' Carpp said. ``The more we learn, the better we will be able to do what we intend to do at Bradley.''

The flower center, which would require 100 acres, would be built with the help of Dutch and Israeli partners. Local officials said they will not disclose the partners' names until early January, when a feasibility study of the center is completed.

Last week, the international partners pledged about $30,000 to help pay for the study, which will be conducted by a Dutch consulting firm during the next three months. The balance of the study's cost, roughly $30,000, will be paid by the Bradley Development League, a consortium of the towns surrounding the airport that aims to bring business to the area.

Carpp said his Florida trip will be paid for by the league.

While the site of the proposed flower exchange center has not been determined, Dowd said only Suffield and East Granby have the available land.

``Hopefully it will be Suffield,'' he said.

Dowd estimated it would take two years before ground is broken on the flower center, but added that he was ``very pleased'' with the pace at which the project is developing.